How Can I Save Money on Shipping?

Here’s a fun fact: eCommerce accounted for $2.3 trillion in sales in 2017! Yeah, you read that correctly. TRILLION. There’s no signs of it slowing down, either. According to some reports, eCommerce sales are expected to hit $4.5 trillion by 2021. That’s a ton of money, and everybody wants in on the action. However, nobody out there seems to be maximizing their savings on shipping! If you’re running an eCommerce business, shipping can be one of your biggest expenses. That’s why it’s SO important to save money on shipping however you can. Lucky for you, we’ve put together a few ways you can save money on shipping below.

Make Sure You’re Using the Right Shipping Carrier

First and foremost, determine which shipping carrier is the right choice for your business! This may seem a bit obvious, but you’d be surprised how often small businesses get this wrong. There are three major carriers in the United States: USPS, UPS, and FedEx. Here’s a quick breakdown to help clear things up:

USPS is the cheapest carrier for sending lightweight items like envelopes and mailers. USPS also offers the best rates for shipping smaller, heavier parcels up to 20 pounds.

UPS is the best option for shipping large, heavy packages over 75 pounds.

Pro Tip: Most E-commerce businesses are built around smaller, heavier parcels like subscription boxes. Therefore, that makes USPS the premier shipping carrier for E-commerce.

Save Money on Shipping with Shipping Software

One of the best ways to save money on shipping is to buy postage online with shipping software. Most small businesses buy postage at the retail rate or commercial rates with hidden markup, which adds up to outrageous amounts if you’re shipping out lots of parcels! Fortunately, you can utilize shipping software to access discounts on postage that you won’t see anywhere else, like Commercial Pricing.

What is Commercial Pricing?

Formerly known as “Commercial Plus Pricing,” Commercial Pricing represents the deepest level of USPS postage discounts available. This level of discounts is normally reserved for companies shipping out over 50,000 packages a year with USPS. However, going through shipping software made by a third-party postage provider lets you access Commercial Pricing and get those same discounts. That’s a pretty sweet deal, if we say so ourselves.

Most shipping software lets you access postage discounts like Commercial Pricing. However, 99% of them will charge you hidden fees or markups on top of the prices they publish. There’s only one free USPS shipping software that doesn’t charge any markups or fees: Pirate Ship. Pirate Ship offers true Commercial rates for every USPS mail class with ZERO additional markups. That means you get hooked up with the deepest USPS discounts that you won’t beat anywhere else.

Ship Priority Mail Cubic

E-commerce business owners, listen up! We’re about to line your pockets with a ton of extra cash. If you’re looking for one of the best ways to save money on shipping, you’ve GOT to know about a “secret” USPS mail class called Priority Mail Cubic.

Priority Mail Cubic is the cheapest and fastest way to send small parcels weighing up to 20 pounds with the USPS. Instead of being priced based on weight like most other mail classes, Priority Mail Cubic’s price is determined by the outer dimensions of your package. That means you can load your package up with as much contents as you can, and it won’t affect the price! Priority Mail Cubic is the perfect mail class for sending parcels like subscription boxes or other heavy products, such as shipping coffee beans.

If you want to see exactly how much money you can save with Priority Mail Cubic, check out this Smart Cubic Calculator. Just type in the dimensions of your package, and the calculator will tell you which cubic pricing tier your parcel belongs to. The calculator even helps you optimize your package dimensions so you get the most bang for your buck!

It’s a No-Brainer to Save Money on Shipping

Here’s the deal. Now that you know what you know, there’s no excuse for you NOT to save money on shipping. With a little time and extra effort, saving money on shipping is a total no-brainer. Don’t worry about thanking us—all Shipping School wants is to see your small business succeed. Now go get saving!

Rockwell Sands is a shipping guru and a wizard with words. After growing frustrated with all of the inaccurate (and boring) shipping resources out there, he decided to combine his love of writing and shipping into educational articles on Shipping School. He's on a mission to shed light on shipping so small businesses can succeed. With E-commerce growing rapidly each year, shipping is more important than ever before. Feel free to reach out and drop him a line!

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Shipping School is a free educational resource built by shippers, for shippers. We’re here to help eCommerce businesses navigate the complicated waters of shipping, so they can focus on the things that really matter like growing their business. Like we always say: shipping doesn’t have to be rocket science!